Love Comics & Games?

Then you’ve already salivated over the post with the amazing games being showcased at TCAF this weekend. (We still need some volunteers for that, by the way — drop Kaitlin a line to find out more!)

And probably you’ve already RSVPed to the art show opening on Thursday.

But did you know about the crazy star-studded panel happening on Saturday, conveniently close to the Bit Bazaar happenings? 

Comics vs Games: Narrative Intersections
Featuring Scott C., Bryan Lee O’Malley, Ben Rivers, Jim Zub, Moderator Miguel Sternberg
Saturday, May 11, 1:00pm-2:30pm
@ Bit Bazaar, Bento Miso, 862 Richmond Street West (Queen & Strachan)
FREE

A huge component of TCAF 2013 is our one-day, off-site BIT BAZAAR! An exhibition of more than 20 indy game developers and studios, with games, art, and crafts that mix comics, games, and narrative. At the center of the event is this special presentation featuring some of the greatest names in the comics & games crossover! Scott C. (Doublefine, The Art of Brutal Legend), Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim), Benjamin Rivers (Snow, Home), Jim Zub (Skullkickers, Street Fighter HD Remix), and Moderator Miguel Sternberg (They Bleed Pixels) will discuss the intersection between comics and games, how comics and games borrow from each other to tell stories. The participants will talk about their relationships with games, how they borrow and adapt ideas from games and comics into the other. A signing with book sales will follow!

Comics vs Games 2 is a Toronto Comics Arts Festival event sponsored by Bento Miso and co-organized with The Hand Eye Society and Attract Mode.

Volunteer Ops: Symphonic, Artsy and Punk

The Hand Eye Society’s Annual General Meeting is in the spring, and if you’d like to attend and vote as a full member of the Society all you have to do is donate ten hours of volunteer time to videogame culture projects in the city over the last year. We’re involved with a couple of events coming up that will allow you to do just that.

Email jim@handeyesociety.com if any of the following interest you:

• The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has invited the Torontrons for the intermission/afterparty of their Arcadiac show at Roy Thompson Hall in early March, as well as some other shows in their New Creations series.  We’re looking for people to attend the ‘Trons and help people play the games (and yes we’ll train you). Volunteers will get in free to the show.
• We were talking to the ArtStarts people (an arts not-for-profit that among other things, makes community murals that don’t suck — see above) and they are interested in connecting with game creators. They have a program where they send artists in to various communities around Toronto to get them to talk about what they make to youth. There’s a small honorarium if chosen.
• We’re curating music games (Sound Shapes among them!) again for the great multidiscipinary series Toronto Long Winter this Friday Feb. 8th. If you didn’t check it the first time, check out the awesome vid documenting last month. We can use volunteers for two hours shifts throughout the night to help people with the games.

Music + Games = Awesome

Last year we were struck by the amount of games being made in Toronto where music played an integral part.

We’ve been able to find some great partners —  Toronto Arts Council and the Long Winter Series — to showcase some of them!

Toronto Long Winter is a 4-part monthly series presented by the punk band Fucked Up. Each one has a great variety of interesting bands (this month includes rapper Buck 65), but as well they have a ton of other types of art installations, performances, and food.

And this month, they’ve got videogames as well: we’re presenting They Bleed Pixels (with a set by DJ Finish Him on the Pianocade) and Dyad.

FRIDAY JANUARY 11, 2013
THE GREAT HALL   1087 QUEEN ST. W.
ALL AGES   PAY WHAT YOU CAN   8:00PM

Hope to see you there! It’s a big, warm, art-friendly crowd, check out this video documenting the first one.

If you are extra-excited about this music/games community collab, we can use your help at the event. If you can help people play the games or shoot some vid/pics, please email jim@handeyesociety.com (remember, volunteer hours get you a Hand Eye membership and voting rights).

Volunteers Wanted: Torontrons On The Move!

After a long stint at the Toronto Underground Cinema (RIP) the Torontrons (the original, Highroller, and Twinstick) are emerging out into the world to offer free play of homegrown Toronto games to different audiences. Over the next few months our indie arcade cabinets are going to be hosted at the Monarch Tavern, Site 3, and Canzine, but as they are less autonomous than Daleks they need your help.

• Moving: Can you spend an hour or two helping us move the machines?
• Vehicle: Do you have access to a large vehicle for transport? A CRV, a van, a flatbed perhaps?
• Storage: Do you have a space for one or more cabinets (2ftx2ftx6ft) for when they need to rest?
• Hosting: Would you like to have one of the cabinets available in your space for the public to play?
• Repair: Do you enjoy tinkering with mutant machinery wired to PC boxes?

Please get in touch with Alex (alex@handeyesociety.com) if your answer to any of the above questions is yes!

For DIY game makers here is a call to participate in the Canzine Games Room. He is also looking for volunteers to help him set up and run the room, if you want to mix it up with the creative indie kid crowd that comes out to Canzine:

Broken Pencil magazine and their DIY tech columnist skot deeming (aka mrghosty) are planning something special at this year’s Canzine. Toronto has a rich creative community of DIY game makers; whether their works be digital games, card games, board games etc. And we want to show them off at Canzine Toronto 2012.

We’re looking for is a number of people who have made DIY games to come down to the games room and demo them, allowing Canzine attendees to experience DIY game culture first hand.

If you’re a board game, card game, or a digital game maker, we want to bring you in, share your work and come play with us on October 21st!

The Hand Eye Society will be providing their Torontron Game Cabinets, and we’ll be supplying tables and chairs for everyone to gather around and play. If you’re a DIY digital game maker, bring down your laptop and show people what you’re up to. If you’re a board game maker and want some play testing of a prototype, this would be a great chance for that too!

If you want to come and bring your games along, please let me know as we’ll be compiling a list of makers and games for the web, etc prior to the event. All those demoing their games will get free admission to Canzine and a copy of the latest issue of Broken Pencil Magazine.

Send all inquiries and registration info to mrghosty@gmail.com. Please include your name, the title of your game and a brief description.

Remember, volunteer time earns you voting rights and membership (see our new FAQ for full details).

Education Working Group Meeting

Newly formed at the last Annual General Meeting, the Education Working Group is meeting for the first time this Wed. Sept. 5th at 7:30pm to discuss some proposals for programs and partners in the coming year.

Building on the experience of previous projects like last year’s Difference Engine Initiative, we’re in a unique position to facilitate game education in a variety of institutional and community-based contexts .

If you have any experience teaching people (informally or not) about games we’d love you to come and share your perspective.

If you have an interest in games and education but no experience, but may be able to volunteer some time to these work on these initiatives, you’re also welcome. (Ten hours of volunteer time makes you a full Hand Eye Society member and eligible to vote in the next AGM.)

We’ll be meeting at Education Through Media (1610 Bloor Street West, between Keele & Dundas West). Please RSVP to jim@handeyesociety.com.